Step 3: Public comment, technical difficulties, and a tempting done-for-now

Sent this out to even more friends, posted on bluesky and a few smaller subreddits to get a bit more feedback. For a while in there, I had an FPS monitor to track the frame rate, and the results were telling. What runs at ~110 FPS within Unity only ends up running ~60 on Itch (no biggie!) Of course, when I sent it around to a few more friends on Thanksgiving, with just a few days before the NYU Games Center MFA Application due,  I heard back from Ken that he was getting frame rates of 14 (!!!) I also noticed that being in low battery mode dropped me down to 30. So, in order to make sure I had a usable product on every machine, I ended up ripping a lot of trees and bird controllers out, plus I tweaked a few details in the build settings. Minor improvement, but the Reddit feedback has been positive re: performance.

The biggest note from feedback: I can't surf! This was pretty much expected, since my SFPC classmates had the same problem. It's hard to put myself in the learning mindset, since I learned from people in CS:Source and TF2 lobbies back in 2008ish. I actually do remember learning, then forgetting, then re-learning though! Virginia's suggestion was to add more to the training area, including a ramp that you can't fall off of. That wasn't enough for some people, so I added even more explicit textual tips. Sadly, I was hoping for an immersive teaching process via the crow, but it just doesn't lend itself to in-depth explanation.

Now that I've submitted my Games Center application and we're coming up on the SFPC exhibition, I'm getting pretty close to the point of "done for now." There are still some things I'd love to add: pause button, my brother and a Redditor both asked for a non-pixelated version, Nikki suggested adding coins to the routes a la Temple Run, I wouldn't mind having a toggle for the zanier camera filters or some sick ambient DnB music for the true surf montage experience... I was originally thinking that UI elements were a pain in the @, but adding the "surf tips" was enough of a learning lesson that I'm feeling slightly better about the possibility. But ugh, other games are waiting. Godot calls me back, even though 3D world building has been so satisfying. I've also got this idea about an IRL dice rolling, fighting game... Also wouldn't mind taking a break for a while and just taking it easy for the holidays while I await NYU's decision. /shurg